Today on Liberal Conspiracy we have a treat for you. This week we officially launch our campaign: Coalition For Choice, to support the HFE Bill and develop an online advocacy group in favour of extending abortion rights over the longer term. See the website for more about our aims.

To mark this launch we have a week of Nadine Dorries MP on Liberal Conspiracy! We will illustrate how this Conservative MP:
- has consistently misrepresented the arguments around abortion;
- is fronting campaigns by Christian groups without declaring so;
- is promoting hoaxes on her websites;
- has frequently and wrongly smeared reputable journalists and scientists;
- hides her true long-term intentions on the issue of abortion

You might already be familiar with some of these allegations. However, we plan to publish a dossier by the end of the week with all the information so it is all in one place. But first:

Today I am lodging a formal complaint with regards to the conduct of Nadine Dorries MP, specifically in relation to the misuse of the parliamentary Incidental Expenses Provision allowance, for the purpose of conducting party political/campaign activities contrary to regulations.

It is my view that Nadine Dorries MP has broken parliamentary rules numerous times by using her blog for the purposes of campaigning. I am sending off a letter of complaint, published here.

The letter of complaint (pdf)   |   Evidence of complaint (pdf)

This letter of complaint is relevant to the CfC campaign because many of the criticisms levelled by Nadine Dorries MP on other MPs relate to their pro-choice stance. This letter and other evidence forthcoming this week has been put together by researchers, various Liberal Conspirators and bloggers elsewhere (who will be noted duly).

Support the Coalition for Choice - write to your MP

(this will help you compile an email)

Facebook Page - join it!

As part of her campaign to force the government to reduce the 24 week limit within which women can legally have abortions, the MP Nadine Dorries yesterday unveiled 20 reasons for 20 weeks.

Today, we publish 24 reasons for 24 weeks, as part of our own campaign to fight for women’s rights to abortion.
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In the pages of the Daily Mail yesterday, anti-choice poster-girl Nadine Dorries MP was given a platform to put across her misogynist, reactionary views.

She and a claimed ‘coalition of 200′ MPs are calling for a reduction in the time limit on legal abortion from 24 to 20 weeks, despite a lack of evidence that fetuses can survive outside the womb before that point and despite the fact that most women are against further reductions in the time limit.
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A bill outlawing the possession of “extreme pornography” is set to become law next week. But many fear it has been rushed through… Stephen has more thoughts.

What a day - Mayday protests, an election and now I discover my own profession is being brought in to disrepute with those who care about women’s rights (lets hope that’s pretty much everyone).

I’m talking about Johnny Vegas’s behaviour towards an audience member during the show hosted by Stewart Lee at the Bloomsbury Theatre last Friday. I wasn’t at the show myself so I can only comment on reports from those who were. One audience member James Williams, posting on the NOTBBC forums said the following - and I apologise for the long quote but it is quite hard to locate the original post on the forums so easier to read it here, also I don’t want to quote pieces out of context without the disclaimers James himself includes:
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(I was asked to give a speech, yesterday, at the Housmans Bookshop in London. This is an extract from what I said)

A sea-change is taking place in contemporary feminism, particularly in the cities. Feminism is moving out of the universities and back onto the streets, as women of all backgrounds realise that practical action, class agitation and the rights of ordinary, working women are, and always have been, the future of the movement.

Midway through writing this article on Monday, I had a pregnancy scare. My period was a couple of days late, I was spotting but not cramping, I was off my food… I panicked.

It didn’t take me long to decide that I would want to terminate the pregnancy, and that meant a litmus test for my socialism: should I spend my limited savings, money that could be going towards vital schooling, on a quick, safe, private abortion, or should I go through the stress and psycho-physical trauma of asking for an abortion on the NHS?
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The candidates for Mayor of London have outlined their policies on gender violence to End Violence Against Women (EVAW). But they say Boris Johnson is out of line with national party policy. Press release follows. Continue reading…

John Prescott has made eating disorders news again by coming out as bulimic. This, of course, is a perfect opportunity for me to latch myself on to my favourite look-at-this-damn-issue horse. Eating disorders need celebrity chic to be news these days, but they don’t cease to be a dangerous epidemic when someone famous hasn’t just bared their soul in a lucrativebook deal.

The thousands of brilliant young, and not so young people who are killed or mentally crippled by bulimia, anorexia, bulimarexia, binge-eating and other disorders every year fail to make regular headlines for one reason only: it’s a ‘girl’s illness.’
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Have you got worries?
Are you struggling to deal with the hefty demands of modern womanhood?
Are you unable to sleep in patriarchal space?
Are you exhausted from supervising the intricate gender fuckeries of your friends, family and pets?
Are you probed by Margaret Thatcher in your dreams?

Help is at hand, as Pennyred turns feminist agony auntie. Post your woes, rants and distressed frothings in the comments, or email to laurie.penny@gmail.com and my secretary will deal with you, once he’s finished ironing my thongs.

Replies shall be swift and terrible.

Time mag has a brilliant piece on Carme Chacón - Spain’s newest defence minister. The 37 year old is not only the first woman to head Spain’s armed forces, she is also seven months pregnant. The Spanish are leading the way in gender equality.

An abortion rights update for you all:

Tis the 1967 Abortion Act’s enactment birthday this week, people, and our friends over at Abortion Rights are suggesting a number of activities (no off-colour comments, please) to mark this major occasion.

One excellent way to observe the anniversary yourself is to send a stiff letter to your MP, telling them to vote against any anti-abortion amendments to the Abortion Act that conservative political opportunists try to sneak onto the agenda as the now-famous Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill progresses through parliament this spring.

Here at LC, we’ve argued - correctly, may I add - that the HFEB has absolutely nothing to do with abortion law (it’s about regulating the sciences of fertilisation and embryology, and - that’s it. The End).

Alas, the pro-life loonies keep refusing to make the leap.
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Maths prodigy Sufih Yusof outed herself last week as the latest girl-genius to hang up her blue stockings for suspenders and a push-up bra. Sufiah, an Oxbridge scholar at the age of thirteen, sold her story of academic destitution leading to high-class prostitution to several major tabloids after being outed by the News of the World.

The story, of course, is an old favourite just screaming to be partnered with extensive photographs of the economics PhD in various states of graphic undress, brandishing whips and dildos and pull-outs about loving sex with random strangers.
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A Times poll published today will show that around 50% of the public support the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos to tackle diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

A poll for The Times reveals today that the contentious medical research enjoys broad public approval, with 50 per cent backing new laws that would permit it and only 30 per cent opposed. The findings undermine claims by critics of the experiments that they enjoy little public support and they will bolster the Government’s attempts to pass the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which begins its passage in the House of Commons next month. MPs of all parties will have a free vote on its provisions for human-animal embryos.
…
The poll finds much greater scepticism about another section of the Bill, which would remove the legal requirement that infertility clinics consider a child’s need for a father before accepting patients for treatment. This reform is opposed by 40 per cent of people, with just 32 per cent in favour, but is popular with voters aged between 18 and 34.

The poll (pdf) shows that Liberal Democrats were the most sympathetic towards lesbian mothers.

The HFE Bill is most likely to be passed through parliament without any serious danger of it being shelved. Nevertheless, I think left-liberals need to make more noise in opposition to its critics, particularly from the Catholic Church. And not just on the issue of human-animal hybrid embryo research but also abortion.

So I’m going to start by briefly laying out my position on the bill. I’m working to launch a more concerted campaign so I’d be interested in hearing what readers have to say.
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Violent pornography has become part of our cultural language. Its conceits are used to sell everything, from clothes to cars to women’s underwear. But is censorship the answer?

A recent article of mine on The F Word in response to new UK porn laws laid down by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill 2008 generated a surprising amount of controversy. In brief, part of the Bill sets out to ban various forms of ‘extreme’ pornography, including bestiality, necrophilia and some ’snuff’ porn.
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A victory this week for the Safety First Coalition, as legislation attempting to further criminalise prostitutes was thrown out, once more, by the House of Lords. The legislation, which would have involved forced rehabilitation or prison for repeat offenders and greater powers given to the police to arrest and incarcerate hookers, has been officially axed from the extremely dubious Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. (Keep your eye on this one).

Call me sally-state-the-obvious, but when a person is in the sort of situation where prostitution starts looking like a viable career option, the fact that it might be illegal is probably going to be the least of their worries. Right, I’m going to take a job which is widely seen as degrading, unstable, hugely dangerous, exposes me daily to disease and isolates me from my friends and family - no, but wait! I might get a criminal record!
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So, the Prime Minister has decided that MPs should be allowed a free vote on “ethical” aspects of the upcoming Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. I can only think of expletives in response to how quickly this govt has capitulated to pressure from the Catholic Church. And its not the bloody Tories who are the main problem here but the Labour god squad in the form of Des Browne, Ruth Kelly and Paul Murphy. Coerced helpfully by mad rantings by the Catholic Church, naturally.

They. Must. Be. Stopped. I can’t put it better than Polly Toynbee or David Aaronovitch did yesterday.
More from:
Dave Osler: Embrylogy bill: in defence of liberation biology
Shiraz Socialist: The Fertilisation Bill: the rational counter-attack
Stroppyblog: Politicians And Their Consciences

On this bill, I also agree with Dominic Lawson on why deaf parents should be given the choice to have deaf children. Oh, and the nutjobs have come up with another campaign website.

Nadine Dorries, the Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire, is a continual source of comedy material as an anti-abortion campaigner. On Wednesday she wrote The Hand of Hope, a blog-post apparently illustrating a small hand emerging from a uterus. Dr Ben Goldacre at Bad Science points at evidence, including the doctor she quotes in her article, saying it was a hoax.
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The other day I asked readers of my blog how they felt about men who wear skirts and/or make-up.

I’m a man. I’ve worn skirts, dresses and make-up on occasion in the past. I imagine I’ll do so again at some point in the future, but I wouldn’t dare to wear a skirt out in public (or at least not outside certain ’safe’ public places) because I value my personal safety too much. Whilst I will concede that there was an element of deliberately doing so to be ‘different’, my choice was primarily based on the same simple reason I wear anything: because it was comfortable and I thought it looked good.
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A woman taking part in the Million Women Rise march in London on Saturday. Image from the F-Word flickr pool under a CC license.